Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Rutgers President Robert Barchi Needs to Go – Press Conference a Train Wreck

by Kent Sterling

Rutgers president Robert Barchi’s performance in his ill-advised press conference demands his removal as president – not because he behaved in opposition to the expectations of the board of governors, but because he delivered upon them.

Anyone who has spent a lot of time talking to publicly compensated bureaucrats watched Barchi with the expectation that he would perform exactly as he did. People ascend to the position of university president because they are honorable and eager to do the right thing. They are hired because when bad things have happened elsewhere, they were smart enough to avoid having anything stick to them.

Barchi didn’t go to any Herculean lengths to try to deflect blame for the mess resulting from basketball coach Mike Rice hurling balls, epithets, and physical abuse at his players. He reflected his character by feinting, dodging, and flippantly dismissing the notion that he should have watched the video showing very plainly the abuse.

The odd part of this – and I would say hilarious, but there are thousands of parents of Rutgers students paying outrageous amounts of money to be led into adulthood by people who work under Barchi’s direction – is that there is no way that Barchi sees any of his behavior is wanting in any way.

It is a virtual certainty that he sees his performance during the press conference as exceptionally effective. Through the twisted and wobbly prism of university-speak, he was excellent. For fans of logic, it was perplexing and repugnant.

I can’t count the number of meetings I have sat in with people like Barchi who spend hours saying nothing. The mind-numbing droning of people interested only in watching the clock spin without contributing anything negative drains the life out of anyone within earshot.

The game for Barchi and the thousands of others like him is to be as risk averse as possible. That nothing positive is ever contributed is of no consequence to them. Assess and deflect is the strategy that builds homes, buys boats, and allows for career ascension.

ESPN’s Jay Bilas has looked like his head would explode all day, and for good reason. He’s a guy that believes in acting logically and with decency. Despite being an attorney, Bilas has maintained the brain of a bold member of society who calls bullshit when appropriate.

The world Bilas is criticizing orbits a different sun – one that is neither cold nor warm. The orbit has no purpose other than to continue its orbit uninterrupted. And the people in that world smile and quip and point at others. Strength is weakness and weakness is strength.

That is the world of academia, and Barchi knows how to inhabit that world. Another frequent target of Bilas is a kingpin there. NCAA president Mark Emmert has made that clear throughout his career, and most recently in his similarly baffling press conference.

It’s not that Emmert and Barchi are experts at dodging the logical arguments of Bilas and those like him. They don’t understand them at all. It’s like Bilas is speaking a different language because logic means decisive evaluation, and academics have no use for such indulgences.

There will be conflict between the Bilases and Emmerts/Barchis of the world until the end of time because they are wired as differently as Apple and Dell computers. IMacs are made for smart people to use, and Dells are made for smart people to figure out how to use. Different people gravitate to different processes.

IMac users have no idea why anyone would ever buy a Dell, and Dell users think IMac fans are dolts.

So we are left with confusion everywhere, and a generation of college students – especially at Rutgers – wondering why adulthood is something to be embraced when clearly it has nothing to do with advanced thought or addressing what makes life worth living.

A sad story continues to unravel, and because the logical outnumber the bureaucratically gifted, Barchi will have to go. He will be replaced by another guy with no goal other than deflection and kicking the can down the road until a job at a school willing to pay him more calls.

Barchi will go eventually, but the kids at Rutgers will be stuck in the same boat – just like all the other students at public universities run by pedantic wonks. Good luck to all of us.

Bob Seger Is a Study in Happiness, Contentment, and Joy

by Kent Sterling

Last night, my wife and I brought our son Ryan to see Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. We did it because he needs to see a man who truly enjoys his job.

There are very few times in life that we get to see a man do exactly what he was meant to do – and know it. So many people roll through life avoiding their true talent because of money, expedience, or a perplexing aversion to success or happiness.

Bob Seger is a songwriter and performer. When discussions of who should be on the Mount Rushmore of American music, or even rock music, Bob Seger is rarely mentioned. As I watched the show last night, the quality of his songs was striking. I always hated “Like a Rock” because it was on Chevy commercial four times an hour for a decade. Listening to the entire thing live last night was a revelation. It’s an amazingly frank recollection of youth by a man who is now confronted by the physical failures age brings with it.

At a time when every concert is a choreographed show, Seger bucks that evolution of live acts by simply playing his songs with an excellent band. The star of the concert is the canon of Seger’s compositions.

His performance level, as always, is unique. The pseudo-dancing is just like the songs – an expression of the joy Seger feels about life.

Life is filled with opportunities to compromise dreams, loves, and joys. Few of us have the stones to live life doing exactly those things that ring true to us. While parents try to make sure their kids get a great education through traditional means, going to a show like the one Ryan got a chance to see last night will benefit him for decades – as it did me.

What we should do guides us in decisions, and if we are lucky what we should do and who we are intersect as they have for Seger.

As far as where he stands in the pantheon of American songwriters, listen to “Night Moves”, “Hollywood No-ights’, “Main Street”, “Turn the Page”, “Fire Down Below”, and the rest of his catalogue, and then judge for yourself. I would list him with Dylan, Wilson, and Springsteen.

Whatever Seger is, people who see him live have no doubt who he is. We should all strive to live a life as true as he has.

Ten Things to Do in St. Louis When Visiting

by Kent Sterling

St. Louis is a very underrated town when it comes to fun. Before living here for almost two years, I had almost never visited since I was a kid. It didn’t take long to learn I made a mistake almost every time I opted no to make the 3 1/2 hour drive from Indianapolis.

For the youngsters who like to think they can drink beer with the best of them, you better do some training to hang with the residents of a town that was raised in the shadow of the Budweiser Brewery. This is a town that loves beer. They drink it at lunches. They drink without a reason. They drink lots of them. And they drink Bud or Bud Light.

This is a city that doesn’t mind giving the stink eye to guests, and the term ‘guest’ applies to anyone didn’t go to high school here. If you order a beer, make it an Anheuser Busch product, or you will get odd looks.

There are certainly are lot of choices for families visiting this river city, but my son was 22 when I moved here, so I have no working knowledge of the Science Center or other kid friendly activities. This list is purely for those untethered by the whines of children.

10 – Broadway Oyster Bar – If you stay downtown, the bars and restaurants are all reasonably good. It’s damn near impossible to find a bad meal in town, and the proximity to the brewery makes it likely the beer is equally fresh everywhere, but the Broadway Oyster Bar (on Broadway just a little south of Interstate 64) is a great spot for New Orleans style food and live music. It’s a little eclectic, but when the weather is good, the tent over the performance space is retracted, and it becomes a spectacular nightspot.

9 – Lumiere Casino – You can’t miss this place. It’s on the north side of downtown a four-iron from the Mississippi, I don’t recommend gambling at the casino, (it’s not really gambling as much as losing), but watching other people lose is a great way to kill an hour. Watching people who clearly don’t have a lot of money wager so little even winning isn’t worth their time is hilarious. The people wave their hands in front of the screen with differing level of nuttiness as though that could have a positive influence on the result. You want a lesson in how easy it is to get people to part with their cash, it happens 1,000 times per minute at the Lumiere. “Living in hope, dying in desperation” should be their motto.

8 – Mardi Gras – For those who are repelled by the amateur hour that is Mardi Gras in New Orleans, the long drive, or a combination, the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in America is in St. Louis. The parade is a total mess with boob flying and flopping everywhere. It kicks off at 11a, and by 3p the streets of Soulard (the neighborhood built back in the day to house brewery employees) are filled with the wobbly and incoherent. Unpleasant looking women are much more likely to show you their wares for a cheap string of beads, but the attractive and drunk are quite willing as well. It’s worth a trip once as a slice of life adventure, but more than that is just punishing yourself.

7 – Cardinals Game – I would recommend coming to town for a weekend series. Hotel rooms downtown are cheap, and the ballpark is fabulous. The best thing about the stadium is the group of intelligent fans in it. After a lifetime of sharing space with Cubs fans more focused on drinking a beer an inning, listening to the deep baseball conversations of Cardinals fans who choose to actually watch the game is a joy. Two World Series wins in the last seven seasons have primed the passion pump, and most games are near sellouts. Get tickets early, and enjoy a weekend of baseball.

6 – Eat at 360 – There is a restaurant/bar on top of the Hilton that overlooks Busch Stadium. The fish tacos are great, and the view during a Cardinals game is awesome. You can sit near a fire pit, enjoy a meal, and watch the game (although following the ball is less than simple unless you have the eyes of a hawk). There can be a line for the elevator, but it moves pretty quickly.

5 – Play golf – St. Louis has a middling repution as a golf town that is entirely undeserved. The golf in the Gateway to the west is really good. It’s just far enough south to accommodate Zoysia, a that’s more fun than Bent – at least for me. I hit down on the ball, and take a heavy divot. If I’m playing three or four times in a week, all that shock takes a toll on my elbows and shoulders. On Zoysia, there is a little more bounce and less give. No need to go to the Carolinas to play – there are dozens of excellent tracks in St. Louis.

4 – Eat on The Hill – Fans of Italian food should come to St. Louis just for that. There is an Italian neighborhood where time has stood still for generations (the whole city is like that). Houses aren’t listed with real estate agents, they are quietly mentioned to neighbors who might know someone who would like to move there. The restaurants throughout St. Louis aren’t almost all family owned, and that it true on The Hill. I could recommend specific places, but I’ve never gone there looking for a specific place. I’ve gone without any agenda or destination in mind, and have always left very pleased.

3 – Go to the Arch – I’m not recommending a trip up in the thing. That’s a pain in the ass, and the reward is a view that offers nothing memorable. What you should do is walk into the staging area underneath the thing, and watch the movie made about the construction of the tallest monument in America. The way the Arch was designed and assembled was fascinating. That no one fell off the thing as it went up is incredible. The projection, if I remember correctly, was that 13 people would die during the construction, but none did.

2 – Tour the Budweiser Brewery – Sure there are two free beers at the end, but the interesting part is the history of the brewery that churns out enough Budweiser each day to keep all the frats at Indiana University stocked for a millennium. The Busch Family built a school on the grounds for the children of employees, and when prohibition went into effect, production switched to a non-alcoholic beverage called Bevo. There are bunches of arcane and odd details in the tour that make it worthwhile even without the free beer.

1 – See a show at either the Peabody Opera House or the Fox Theatre – These are beautiful buildings with ornate fixtures and incredible acoustics. Ultimately, the pleasure you gain from seeing a theatrical production or concert will depend upon the quality of the show, these are two houses with great history and beauty.

There are plenty of things to do beyond this list – like going to Rams and Blues games. Those experiences are not fundamentally different from what goes on at similar events in other cities.

Everything downtown is walking distance, making St. Louis a convenient stop for tourists on a budget.

Problems with NCAA Easy to See – Impossible for Mark Emmert to Fix

by Kent Sterling

NCAA chief Mark Emmert is frustrated, and that was clear in the defiant tone at his press conference yesterday. He has good reason to be frustrated. The problems are everywhere, and the solutions are impossible to enact.

That will turn a guy who had high hopes when reporting to Indianapolis for duty a little sour. People want answers for the scandal filled mess that is collegiate athletics, but Emmert can’t provide any given the tools at his disposal.

The problems include players getting paid to play by boosters and agents, players not getting a percentage of their licensing, kids being abused by coaches, kids earning nonsense degrees, the one-and-done rule, academic work being done by academic advisors, and a rule book so complex that it takes a team of compliance officers at every member institution to understand them.

The solutions involve a team of 59 investigators who cannot compel anyone to talk, and the reality that the NCAA is nothing more than an oversight organization to which schools belong, which means that the NCAA only has the power allocated by those schools to monitor their own behavior.

Reform under those parameters will happen slowly if at all. There are plenty of movies from the 1930s, including the Marx Brothers in ‘Horse Feathers’ and ‘Hold that Co-ed’ with John Barrymore. You want to know how little corruption in college football has evolved? Watch those movies.

Coaches earn up to $6-million per year to do one thing – win championships. If that means that a kid is going to get a general studies degree instead of the education he needs to get ahead in business, the coach will shove him into general studies. If a kid can help win a championship, but is dumb as a sack of doorknobs, a solution will be found. If a kid has the potential to earn millions in the NFL or NBA, someone is going to give the kid money to get close to him.

Those are realities. No rule or penalty is going to stop those behaviors.

Emmert is the head of the organization charged with keeping the playing field level, and not forcing schools to go into their pockets to keep athletes happy.

As Emmert alluded to several times yesterday, the schools bear the majority of the weight in making sure that rules are followed, and that kids leave having received a reasonably valuable education. That the NCAA is seen as the last best hope in mandating fairness says a whole lot more about the pervasive amorality among the schools and the public ignorance in where responsibility should really lay.

When the Rutgers sadness unfolded this week, the questions were not only asked of coach Mike Rice, AD Tim Pernetti, and president Robert Barchi, they were asked of Emmert – as though Emmert should need to spearhead rules changes to address coaches using physical abuse to punish student-athletes.

That job belongs to the school, and they are the people who should be held responsible. Because the media doesn’t get a chance to quiz university presidents very often, the weight is thrown to Emmert.

I’m neither a fan nor detractor of Emmert. He seems a well-meaning fellow who say all the right things, but acts with the speed of a bureaucrat to address issues. The inertia in collegiate athletics is a worthy foe, and changing the direction of the organization to address the public dissatisfaction in the repeated corrupt behavior of coaches and their programs is like turning an aircraft carrier.

The real angst should be directed toward the university presidents and athletic directors. As long as the boosters’ cash flows to schools because of wins, and dries up with losses, the motivation for coaches to serve as mentors and leaders for the group of human beings they are entrusted to shepherd through the end of adolescence is weak.

That has nothing to do with Emmert. Holding him accountable is part of the shell game being played by the university administrators to help preserve their lavish lifestyles. Deflecting responsibility isn’t a mode of leadership, but it is the management strategy of choice in collegiate athletics.

So if you are unhappy with kids earning meaningless degrees, getting grades through scurrilous means, or being paid by agents/boosters, stop bitching about Emmert and his staff, and direct your anger to the schools. If you are pissed off, and still write checks to your alma mater, stop it.

If you write a check to subsidize an operation you believe to be corrupt, you are the stooge responsible for this madness.

Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti Fired – Noise Too Much for Barchi, Who May Be Next

by Kent Sterling

No, President Barchi, it’s not okay.

The goal for any administrator is to silence the chants for someone’s head before their names are in being shouted, and Rutgers president Robert Barchi started to hear his name a little too often for his liking.

So Tim Parnetti is a goner, and he was always going to be a goner.

From the very beginning, Pernetti was going to be the guy who paid the price because he acted like a coward when he first saw the video. At the point when the video was seen on ESPN, Pernetti was a ghost.

Now, what is going to happen to Barchi? While it was a certainty that Pernetti was going to get shot, Barchi is 60/40 toward him being out. His unpardonable sin was that regardless of whether he joined Pernetti to view the practice tape or not, he screwed up.

If Barchi saw the tape shortly after Pernetti saw it on November 26th, he acted like a coward in protecting the legal interests of Rutgers at the expense of the student-athletes exposed to the routine violent outbursts of basketball coach Mike Rice.

If he decided not to watch it, he was derilict in his duty as the chief executive of his university. The only reason not to watch would be to avoid culpability in the decision to punish Rice.

Either way, he’s weak enough to be justifiably attacked by politicians looking to be on the right side of this disaster. When politicians can take the high road in a very visible way, it means votes, and if that means the ouster of a university president, that’s a small price to pay.

There is a question as to whether Pernetti was fired or quit, but the truth of the thing is that Pernetti would be been fired regardless of whether he resigned. This was a negotiated separation that will certainly include a confidentiality agreement designed to protect Barchi and anyone else who would get caught in the wake of any honesty that he might offer.

The strategy is to build legal flood walls, and whether it’s announced that Pernetti was fired or resigned, he almost certainly got a check to sign the agreement, which is even more heinous than what behavior is known by Barchi.

This story continues to roll, and the chances are good that it will roll right over the top of Barchi.

Hilarious Baseball Picture from Yesterday’s White Sox vs. Royals Game

This is an undoctored picture of White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko, second baseman Chris Getz, and Royals first base coach Rusty Kuntz. No explanation needed.

This’ll be repeated to the dismay of Lower level seat holders throughout the MLB for another 160 games if Getz gets on first, as Kuntz is the 1B coach. That would be a twisted challenge, collect all 30 teams.

Mike Rice Firing – Someone at Rutgers University Finally Tells the Truth

by Kent Sterling

Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti did a deal worth millions, so his irresponsible decision to only suspend Mike Rice won’t be fatal.

It took a day and a half, but someone associated with Rutgers University blurted out a sensible comment.

The most compelling question that remains in the still unfolding story is why athletic director Tim Pernetti continues to hold on to his job.

Pernetti is the guy who chose expedience and convenience over what was right for the student-athletes playing for Rice. The video showing Rice kicking, shoving, and throwing basketballs at the players, in addition to the outrageous insults hurled at the kids repeatedly was only worthy of a three-game rip and $50,000 fine, according to Pernetti.

The comment by a person close to the Rutgers Board of Trustees was that Pernetti’s job is safe because he successfully negotiated Rutgers’ entry into the more financially lucrative Big Ten. While an indefensible position, at least it’s an honest accounting of the only logical explanation for his retention.

It’s outrageous that an institution of higher learning funded by tax dollars would behave with such pragmatism, but it’s also completely predictable. Self-preservation and the pursuit of cash are the two biggest motivators in American business, and anyone mistaking colleges as a haven far removed from the instincts and lessons of the private sectors haven’t checked the salaries of the people running them.

We can be outraged by the acts of Mike Rice, but throughout history the attempts of successful people to distance themselves from exposure should have calloused us against the actions of Pernetti and Rutgers president Robert Barchi to stay ahead of the posse searching for decency in this sea of debauchery.

There is a quaint sentiment among many not closely involved in a scandal that a bad act requires a consequence that serves as a meaningful disincentive for those who follow. For those in the middle of a scandal, the allure of a cover-up is just too great. The instinct for survival overrides all else, especially among those savvy enough to have risen to the level of athletic director and president of a university.

Honesty wins out in the end once in a while, and the public likes a just resolution.

Maybe the comment about Pernetti’s survival being the result of overt pragmatism from the person close to the trustees at Rutgers will help move this madness toward an honest if not just result.

Our expectations for honorable behavior need to be adjusted because there is no guaranteed payday for the honorable, only a good night sleep – and that’s not enough.

At a place that purports to teach young adults lessons to last a lifetime, that’s worth the price of tuition.

McDonald’s All-American Uniforms Make Watching Game and Indiana Bound Noah Vonleh Almost Impossible

Even in the staged publicity photo, you can’t see the number in the West unis.

by Kent Sterling

There is one reason to watch a high school all-star basketball game like the McDonald’s All-American contest that was played last night in Chicago – to identify and assess the kids who will be freshman at the university of which you are a fan.

After all, nobody has any affinity to one of the geographically assigned teams. The East vs. West is not a compelling reason to care about the game.

The numbers of the backs of the uniforms the players where are key in figuring out which kid is which. They were nearly impossible to distinguish from the body of the jerseys, so separating Indiana bound Noah Vonheh from Kentucky signee Julius Randle was difficult without stopping the video to examine where the reflective silver began and the red cloth began.

For the teams on the West, the camouflage pattern did exactly what the military designed it to do – make the identification of players difficult to impossible.

The are thousands of examples of overstepping from what works to what’s idiotic all because technology allows it. Aluminum bats, synthetic leather basketballs, muzak in elevators, adjustable cup holders in cars, microwave ovens, chewable Spree, HD Radio, and vibrating razors are a short list. To it, we can now add the jerseys the high school players wore last night.

Add the less than on point description of the game on ESPN from Jalen Rose and Jay Williams who rarely mentioned the names of the players, and what could have been a fun look for Kentucky fans who were keenly interested in the six – SIX – recruits playing at the United Center, was a night of asking, “Who’s that guy?” hoping anyone nearby had a clue.

The uniforms last night fall neatly into the category into the category of those things to which we wish people had the good sense to say no.

Once I locked in on Vonleh, I liked what I saw. He was completely uncomfortable is the one-on-one digression of basketball this game rewards. He’s clever around the rim, can rebound, and is an athletic freak. What that means for next season’s Indiana squad is anyone’s guess. One thing for sure is that the Hoosiers don’t have one of him right now.

Indiana Basketball – Yogi Ferrell Isn’t Going to UCLA or Anywhere

by Kent Sterling

Yogi Ferrell will be an Indiana graduate when his collegiate basketball career ends.

It was inevitable that an addlepated knucklehead on a message board would put two and two together to make 17 when Park Tudor head basketball coach Ed Schilling was hired by UCLA’s Steve Alford.

The thinking from the message board conspiracy theorists is that Alford must have hired Ed Schilling because of his relationships with 6’5″ wing Trevon Bluiett (ranked #46 by Rivals in the 2014 class) and Indiana freshman point guard Yogi Ferrell.

The truth is Alford hired one of his best friends, co-author of a book on guard play, and a well respected developer of talent as an assistant coach.

Nothing like message board lunacy to awaken a fanbase that knows Indiana will be one scholarship heavy even if both Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller declare for the NBA Draft. Two words about the rumored transfer of Ferrell – ignore them.

There are a lot of logical motivations for Ferrell to stay put, and only one for him to leave, and people are assuming that Ferrell has a positive enough relationship with Schilling that it would compel him to consider bolting. Schilling is a nice guy, and runs a great workout, but three years can be a long time for a player and coach to get along.

Here is a very incomplete list of reasons that Ferrell will resist any attempt to lure him to Los Angeles:

He would be unable to play next year. That’s a big deal. A year is a long time to a college freshman.
Ferrell’s home is Indianapolis – close for family.
There is a sense of family among the Hoosiers team that is palpable. The players love each other.
Tom Crean has not lost a kid once he got to Indiana that he didn’t want to lose.
Indiana has the number three ranked class in the country coming to Bloomington, and Ferrell will be the leader of this team for the next three years.
Crean has a well-earned reputation for developing talented players, and Indiana’s facilities allow for players to work as hard and long as they want to improve their skills.
While Tom Crean hasn’t exactly been lights out in the NCAA Tourney with a 9-7 record, but Alford’s is a hard to swallow 5-7. Alford hasn’t gone to the Sweet 16 since the Earth cooled (1999).
The dime bags (they used to be a dime) of popcorn at Kenny’s Food Mart are way too delicious, and a place of honor on the Liar’s Bench is the honor Ferrell covets more than being an All-American.

So… teammates Ferrell enjoys – check. Close to home – check. Chance to win in NCAAs – check. Can continue to play next season – check. Great facilities and staff – check. Kenny’s – check!

Weighing against Ferrell staying. His high school coach is on the staff at UCLA.

A very smart man told me many times, “For change to occur, the pain of change must be outweighed by the pain of remaining.” The pain of staying is nowhere near the pain of bolting.

While believing anything posted on a message board is always a crapshoot. In this case, it’s money in the bank that the rumors are unfounded and ridiculous.

It’s fun to imagine the postgame blow by handshake between Crean and Alford if Ferrell made the move and UCLA and Indiana found themselves matched up, but it will never happen.

Mike Rice Fired Because Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti Wants to Keep His Job

by Kent Sterling

Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti continues to be a predictable weasel.

People are weasels. That’s a pretty good rule of thumb for dealing with successful men and women in business. Find the road that is most expedient, and then watch as that is the one chosen by men like Rutgers president Robert Barchi and athletic director Tim Pernetti. They rarely surprise us.

The right thing to do as the leader of the athletic department when video evidence surfaced of basketball coach Mike Rice’s physical and verbal abuse would have been to fire him immediately. You hit a kid, throw a ball at a kid, or call a kid “faggot”, it’s time to pack a box. Do all three repeatedly, and there is no excuse at all for allowing Rice to continue to interact with student-athletes.

Pernetti maintained Rice for one reason – to fire him would have required an explanation, and an explanation this ugly would have invited more criticism. Rutgers would have been shamed, and Pernetti would have been placed in the uncomfortable position of answering questions regarding player treatment at Rutgers. There would also by the potential legal exposure of a player who suffered a level of emotional harm that might lead to a lawsuit.

The attempted rehabilitation of Rice had nothing to do with any compassion for this unrepentant bully, and everything to do with kicking this situation down the road far enough that when the video leaked – as they always seem to – that Barchi, Pernetti and Rutgers could claim a legally tenable position that corrective measures were taken without pulling back the curtain completely.

As always, the kids were the last to be considered in this miserable episode. Corporate life in America has nothing at all to do with the people doing the heavy lifting, and everything to do with building defensive positions for the company and management team. That is true everywhere, and to project a collegiate athletic department into a separate realm is naive. ADs are responsible for negotiating huge media contracts, and run their operation just as CEOs run businesses.

The tragedy that is underscored by Pernetti’s response to Rice’s behavior is that true leadership is not the coveted trait in a person put in charge of a basketball program or athletic department. In fact, it’s not even on the radar. What is required is the ability to strategize and position the entity to minimize liability.

People have two instincts when presented with a crisis – fight or flight. Those who are willing to battle are few and far between. Those who flee are everywhere, and Pernetti has shown himself to be a man of unique ability in doing the wrong thing in the right way. That makes him valuable, which is the pathetic reality of collegiate athletics and corporate America.

Because of that, Pernetti will keep his job despite being the person who allowed Rice to continue “leading” student-athletes whose parents trusted Rice with shaping their kids’ character.

And now, Rutgers president Robert Barchi has commented on Rice’s dismissal. In it he says, “(Pernetti) sought the advice of internal and outside counsel. The university hired an independent investigator to look into this matter thoroughly.” This is typical and smart, if morally reprehensible, corporate speak for, “It wasn’t our fault. We talked to many lawyers and covered our asses by engaging multitudes of others to evaluate Rice’s batshit crazy behavior.”

More Barchi ass covering follows, “Based on the external investigator’s findings and recommendations, Tim and I agreed that Coach Rice should be suspended, penalized $75,000 in fines and lost salary, ordered to undergo anger management counseling, and put on notice that his behavior would be closely monitored. Tim Pernetti also made it clear the Coach Rice that there would be zero tolerance for additional infractions.”

Barchi and Pernetti should be asked and required to answer just what the hell changed between the suspension and now to cause their change in position. If there is a video of Rice going haywire after the initial penalty, that would be a legitimate explanation, but of course there is none. This is nothing more than bureaucratic posturing by weasels unwilling to take any responsibility for being weasels.

In 70 years, America has gone from a country with a president who had a sign on his desk saying “The buck stops here” to one where people are rewarded beyond all reason for their ability to obfuscate and distract. Corporate America is now nothing more that a shell game of responsibility dodging. If you can’t be blamed for anything today, you are a winner. Accepting responsibility is the only unpardonable sin.

So Pernetti and Barchi will go to dinner sometime in the near future to toast each other for so cleverly dodging accountability in this repugnant mess. I hope Rice is there to heave one more basketball at their heads.

Congrats fellas for authoring another lesson for college students about what it takes to succeed in this world, and how doing the right thing just doesn’t matter.